With some prompting from my psych class and some prompting from the pandemic, I have enjoyed reading the following books for supplementary “self help” knowledge. The hope is that some day, I can reference them to clients. I am relatively new to this genre. Either way, I’ve enjoyed these readings for myself as well!
- Moody Bees: If you are at all into looking to more natural ways to heal, this is the book for you. I am not against medicine at all. I am just a sensitive soul… in which a tiny Benadryl can knock me out for 48 hours. I tried SADs meds last winter (for a month and a half), and that knocked me out for 6 months. I am not kidding. I don’t have recollection of what happened those weird months. I know I gained almost 30 pounds and THOSE meds are not for ME. This book is great for cheering on women and embracing who we are even when others put negative labels on us. Favorite quote; “Women’s moods are a strength, not a weakness”. Like, duh! Right!? We are moody and it is ok to be moody. These moods are what allows us to detect things for survival. Girl power!
- You Are A Bad Mama Jama: I am reading this one for the second time. The first time I read it, it was a few years back and the book became inspiration to continue working on my master’s. There were moments that I got discouraged and enjoyed the “just get it done” attitude this book preached. I won’t say that this book is the best ever.. it’s got some cheesy one liners and it doesn’t address deep issues of mental illness, but something about it is very encouraging. If you need motivation… Just go do it. Sometimes it’s simply hearing/reading those encouraging words to get us going. This time around, I am going for my doctorate and this book has got me motivated again!
- The Law of Attraction: This book is super weird. Like freaky weird. Not going to lie. However, I am all about surrounding myself with positive people and positive experiences. And this book is about positive energy and thoughts. Think it. Feel it. Expose it. Share it. It is what you want to attract, that you will attract.
- Make Your Bed (And Clean Your Sheets Often): This is my all time favorite speech, followed very closely by Allen Iverson’s “Practice” speech. I am so glad it is a book too! If I ever get in a funk, this speech makes me snap out of it immediately. Making my bed is alway something I’ve done. Maybe it’s my amazing military dad that taught me and I love that. I do remember being made fun of my neat freak self making my bed every day in college! For me, it’s just a simple, yet great way to start and end a day. Everything you need to know in life is in this speech (book).
- Covering: A few weeks ago, I was asked to read an excerpt of this book for my psych class. I immediately became so wrapped into this man’s story. Initially, I thought I was reading about a man going through the process of finding his true identity, when it turned out he had many identities, some suppressed, achieved, and others foreclosed. It got me thinking about all MY identities. (Think, “social media identity” or “race identity”) I made a list of identifiers and then asked some people close to me to make a list of their own describing me. It was amazing to see words I never would have thought of for myself and other descriptors that matched my thinking! I adore how this man writes and ended up downloading the entire book. This book can be connected to any of us. Since the pandemic, we have all been impacted on the way we identify in some way. Great read!
- The Science of Social Intelligence: So… Here’s the thing. We were not meant to be in fully engaged tribes/villages/groups made up of millions of people. Yet, here we are on social media interacting with too many dang people. It can become overwhelming and not good for our mental health. On top of that we’ve all been hit hard socially with the pandemic (and the politics). We can find our selves alone or needing REAL social interaction. Getting back out there is going to be hard on some of us. I thought it was a refreshing book and I have made my kids read it because social media is here to stay. (Encouraging them to take a “sm” break)
Travel Ninja 